Tag Archives: Iraq

The Levant News | BAGHDAD | BY STEPHEN KALIN AND AHMED RASHEED for REUTERS | Iraq’s interior minister said it was difficult to prevent attacks against people fleeing the Islamic State-held city of Falluja, but denied that such actions were systematic and pledged to punish anyone proven guilty of abuses. …

By Rashin Khosravibavandpouri — Sulaymaniyah, Iraq — During my visit last month to the headquarters of the Iraqi Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga, here, I discovered how women are defeating ISIS. Since ISIS fighters believe that they will not go to heaven if they are killed by a woman, this belief …

by Graham E. Fuller*– Iraqi politics are in turmoil—nothing new here. Not surprisingly, the post-invasion order is taking a long time to shake down, given the destruction of the old. Entirely new relationships had to be forged under the new, radically changed environment. What Iraq requires above all is the …

The Levant News — ISIS attacks have increased this year, particularly in Iraq and Syria as the group responds to substantial territorial losses, a US-based analysis firm IHS said on Sunday. There were 891 attacks during the first quarter of 2016 in neighbors Iraq and Syria, more than in any …

By Sajjan M. Gohel for CTC – On October 28, 2013, a new phase of terrorist violence emerged in China. On that day a man drove a jeep packed with explosives and carrying his wife and mother into a crowd in Tiananmen Square, in the country’s capital Beijing. Two civilians …

THE LEVANT NEWS – WASHINGTON — The US-led coalition against the ISIS(Daesh) has degraded the core of terror group in Iraq and Syria, and its fighters are now at their lowest level in two years. “As we, our allies and partners have made it harder for foreign terrorists to reach …

By Christoph Reuter in Beirut for Spiegel — Last week’s attacks in Brussels show that Islamic State has built up a sophisticated network of terrorists that goes well beyond al-Qaida’s capabilities. It is now able to strike using sleepers who have not yet been identified by security officials. They chose …

THE LEVANT NEWS — LESBOS, GREECE | BY KAROLINA TAGARIS FOR REUTERS — The United Nations refugee agency said on Monday it would not operate in “detention centers” on the Greek island of Lesbos for migrants and refugees arriving from Turkey, dealing a blow to the European Union’s agreement with …

by Leon Tressell for Dissident Voice — Since the New Year there has been a lot of speculation in the mainstream and alternative media about Saudi Arabia and Turkey directly intervening into the war in Syria. Each week there have been threats, demands, and sabre rattling from Saudi Arabia and …

By David Ignatius for Stars and Stripes — U.S. special operations forces working with a widening array of partners are slowly tightening their squeeze on Islamic State group fighters in eastern Syria — moving toward an eventual assault on the jihadis’ self-declared capital of Raqqa. The Pentagon’s top priority in …

The Levant News — By Hassan Hassan* — The war against ISIL is changing, and how its opponents adapt will be a key test of the group’s ability to achieve its goals. A string of attacks and counter-attacks over the course of this year so far signal a major shift …

BEIRUT: Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s defense of Hezbollah in a speech before the Arab League has prompted the Saudi delegation to withdraw from the meeting, an Iraqi news agency reported Friday. “Whoever accuses the Popular Mobilization forces and Hezbollah of terrorism is the one who supports and adopts terrorism,” …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Wars and chaos in the Middle East will not end until Saudi Arabia and Iran can find a way to “share the neighborhood” and make some kind of peace, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a magazine interview released on Thursday. “The competition between the Saudis …

THE LEVANT NEWS — What’s your first and last name? Your education and work experience? Do you have recommendations? And are you willing to be a suicide attacker, or would you prefer to be a fighter for ISIS? Those were among the questions allegedly posed to would-be jihadis on what …

THE LEVANT NEWS — By Graham E. Fuller — What does Turkey need to do to overcome its present foreign policy fiasco, one of the worst in modern Turkish history? The irony of all this is that those directly responsible for this mess—the team of Recep Tayip Erdogan (now president) …

THE LEVANT NEWS — BRUSSELS: Saudi Arabia has decided to increase its military contributions to the campaign against ISIS, including offering to expand its role in the air campaign, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s spokesman said on Thursday after bilateral talks. Carter met Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who …

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has called for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, cautioning against the deployment of ground troops as “a dangerous escalation”. Abadi’s comments seem to be aimed at Sunni Arab countries that have said they were prepared to enter the fray. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister …

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE Hundreds of former ISIS sex slaves have joined an all-female battalion to launch a massive assault against their abusers in Iraq. The Yazidi women – who call themselves the ‘Force of the Sun Ladies’ – have taken up arms in the quest for revenge …

The Levant News — By Graham E. Fuller — A renowned Arab religious scholar in the 14th century, ibn Taymiyya, is sometimes quoted as saying, Al-zulm afdal min al-fawda— “oppression is to be favored over anarchy.” Although ibn Taiymiyya was no establishment figure in his time, this perspective was welcomed …

Jihadi fighters in Iraq and Syria reveal the apocalyptic motivations of the militant movement that has hijacked the Syrian uprising – and transformed the Middle East THE LEVANT NEWS – By Martin Chulov for THE GUARDIAN — For more than a century, Dabiq was one of northern Syria’s forsaken villages, …

THE LEVANT NEWS — ISIS threatened to attack Saudi Arabia for “colluding with crusaders” after the oil-rich kingdom said it had established a 34-state Islamic military coalition to target the militants. In a weekly publication documenting its military activities, the extremist group described as “morons and fools” the 34 members …

THE LEVANT NEWS– BY Dr. Haytham Mouzahem — An-Najaf city is located southern of Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Including the shrine of Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib (599-661 CE), the Shia’ called it the city of ”An-Najaf al-Ashraf” which means the holy city of An-Najaf. Imam Ali …

From the fall of Saddam and internment in a US prison in Iraq to the Arab Spring, the ISIS leader’s influence grew THE LEVANT NEWS — By JASON BURKE — A hagiography and former associates have described Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday after industry data showed an increase in U.S. stockpiles, and as analysts said that U.S. output had been surprisingly resilient in the face of lower prices. Benchmark U.S. crude futures CLc1 slipped to a two-week low at $43.55 a barrel …

THE LEVANT NEWS EXCLUSIVE — by Dr. Geoffrey Cook*– The Uyghurs are a non-Han (Sinic) Islamic people who reside in the northwest of China (in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region) next to the (also restive) Tibetans. Within Xinjiang, they are forty-five percent of the population, but they are spread over a …

The Levant News — by Ghassan Michel Rubeiz, Washington — At great risk, Saudi Arabia confronts Iran in rhetoric and on the battlefield in Syria and Yemen. The National Council on US-Arab Relations, NCUSAR, is an established Washington intercultural agency focused on Arab Gulf interests. This year’s Iran meeting (October 14-15) was the 24th …

The Levant News – – The self-governing Kurds can’t sell Iraqi crude oil in the U.S. under a court decision that puts a fresh hurdle in the path of Kurdish efforts to achieve financial independence from the central government in Baghdad. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in …

The Levant- – Some Iraqi soldiers are abandoning their posts and joining a wave of civilian migrants headed to Europe, raising new doubts about the cohesion of the country’s Western-backed security forces in the fight against ISIS militants. Interviews with migrants and an analysis of social media activity show scores …

THE LEVANT NEWS – by Graham E. Fuller — It is risky to try to discern longer range trends in the Middle East based on a few short term developments. Nonetheless, I can’t resist finding some small shards for cautious optimism in the events of the past few weeks. -Syria: …

THE LEVANT NEWS – BAGHDAD on July 18, 2015 — More than 100 people were killed in a suicide car bombing at a busy market in an Iraqi town on Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks carried out by Islamic State militants since they overran large parts of the …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – Translated by Imen Khemiri–The Islamic State (ISIS) arrested 54 people, including women, in Mosul, in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq on charges of spying, according to a security source. Ahmed Jabouri, a police officer in Nineveh, said that ISIS group arrested 54 inhabitants of Mosul and …

Tensions ran high in eastern Iraq on Friday between Kurdish and Shi’ite fighters, highlighting divisions hampering efforts by the U.S.-backed government to blunt the momentum of Islamic State militants. There were conflicting reports on what transpired in Diyala province after Kurdish peshmerga fighters attempted to dig a trench to separate …

President Barack Obama has said American forces being sent to a new operations center in the heart of the war against Islamic State will not engage in combat, but they will do almost everything but fight to support the beleaguered Iraqi forces. U.S. defense officials say the tasks of the …

BAGHDAD: ISIS militants attacked government forces and their Shi’ite militia allies on 13 June, killing 11 near the city of Baiji as part of the battle for control of Iraq’s biggest refinery, army and police sources said. Four suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives hit security forces and the …

WASHINGTON: U.S. and coalition forces conducted 13 airstrikes targeting ISIS in Iraq on 11 June, as well as 10 strikes against the militant group in Syria, the U.S. military said. The attacks were intended to diminish the support systems for ISIS, hurting its “morale and ability to sustain the fight …

President Barack Obama’s administration is planning to train Sunni tribes’ fighters as part of its move to send up to 450 additional U.S. forces to Iraq, the White House said on 10 June. The United States is also sending weapons to Sunni tribes, as well as the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, …

By Graham E. Fuller – Source: grahamefuller.com– Saudi, Israeli and US neoconservative voices warn us tirelessly that Iran’s imperial sway has now come to dominate the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and now Yemen, and still threatens Bahrain. Analytically speaking such views are not just exaggerated, but misleading and dangerous, …

By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem — The hawza (seminary) in Najaf, which consists of religious schools where Shiite clerics are trained, was founded by the most prominent Shiite religious scholar, Sheikh Muhammad al-Tusi, in 1028 — even though some tend to believe that the hawza was established in Najaf decades before …

By Sharmine Narwani* for RT– There is media confusion about what is going on in Yemen and the broader Middle East. Pundits are pointing out that the US is looking schizophrenic with policies that back opposite sides of the fight against al-Qaeda-style extremism in Iraq and in Yemen. But it …

Stratfor Geopolitical Weekly – By George Friedman — Last week, a coalition of predominantly Sunni Arab countries, primarily from the Arabian Peninsula and organized by Saudi Arabia, launched airstrikes in Yemen that have continued into this week. The airstrikes target Yemeni al-Houthis, a Shiite sect supported by Iran, and their …

By Colin Freeman for THE TELEGRAPH — It may seem unlikely, given their self-publicised appetite for slaughter and mayhem. But like any other high-profile cause, international jihadism is not immune to the charge that standards have slipped over the years. A decade ago, when Osama bin Laden was in charge, he …

THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – By Farhana Qazi* — The steady flow of Muslim girls and women joining the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a.k.a. ISIS, is forcing analysts, scholars, and security officials worldwide to question their motives. Last month, when three British Muslim girls headed for Syria, …

By Shenaz Kermalli for Meftah.org – There’s something to be said about how we respond to horrific images. Each video released by ISIS seems to get more intense in its vulgarity, more creative in its manipulation of hostages and more sophisticated in its audiovisual production. Prior to its most recently …

By HEATHER SAUL – The Independent – Isis militants seized control of parts of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, close to an air base where 320 US Marines are training Iraqi soldiers. The town is northwest of Ramadi, in Anbar province, and has been under attack from the insurgents …